Perceptions of shared governance among nurses at a midwestern hospital

Shared governance is a model of nursing leadership that drives practice. The purpose of this project was to determine whether nursing education, work experience, certification, employment position, setting (inpatient/ambulatory), participation in shared governance, and age were related and predictive of scores on the Index of Professional Nursing Governance (IPNG). The significance was to provide a basis on which to enhance a nursing shared governance model resulting in enhanced patient care. This prospective, cross-sectional study included nurses in any type of nursing role and with any level of educational preparation. An analysis of variance was employed to identify strength of relationships among the categorical or ordinal variables and regression models for the continuous variables. General linear models were used to identify the variables most predictive of IPNG scores. Of the 98 participants, most (96%) were women, 58% were bachelor's prepared, and 80% were staff nurses. The mean IPNG score was 186.5. No significant relationships were found among demographic measures and IPNG scores. A reported role in shared governance, when combined with work setting (inpatient or ambulatory), was predictive of IPNG scores. Nurses who worked in the inpatient setting reported higher mean IPNG scores.